I'm lucky enough to have been able to sign up to the Sew and Quilt Block of the month subscription box so I thought I would tell you all about it. Sew and Quilt is a lovely online quilting shop based in Cornwall. For the past few years, they have been running a monthly subscription box where you receive all of the materials and paper pieces needed to make part of a quilt (English Paper Piecing) and at the end of the year, you will have a completed quilt! I've wanted to join up for a long time but I've been unsure if I could keep up with it each month as it involves a lot of sewing and I have lots of other projects on the go. This year they released an additional quilt to their subscription boxes called the Row by Row quilt and when I saw it, I knew it was the one for me! Each month you get everything to make a horizontal row of the quilt. The beauty of this quilt design is that every month is different (except the first and last months are the same to make the design symmetrical.) This appealed to me greatly as it wasn't going to get too repetitive and each month would be really exciting as it would be something new each time.

The materials arrive each month in a lovely pink box and you get detailed instructions so you can't go wrong. Each month always includes some Liberty Tana lawn fabric too.

As soon as mine arrived I set myself up to cut the fabrics into the required shapes and I used glue to baste my hexagon shapes. That took me two days to complete. I then did a little each day to stay on track and so far I've managed to keep up with each month's box.

Once all of the shapes have been sewn together, the papers need to be removed and it then needs to be sewn to the backing fabric. Each strip of backing fabric is then sewn together to form the quilt. Here is mine so far.

I love making this quilt so much and I really look forward to receiving the special box each month. It's really fun to sew along with other people and I love the community aspect to this project.

Jessie, who owns Sew and Quilt, designs the block of the month quilts and she always picks the most beautiful fabrics. I love her style which is why I knew I would love this subscription. 

This month's box is my favourite so far. The design is Dresden flowers and they are so pretty! I love the fabrics that have been included too.
Have you ever signed up to a block of the month subscription? If so, which one? I think they are so much fun, I'm already thinking about which one I might do next year!
​Happy sewing!

Do you use Pinterest? I've been really getting into Pinterest lately and I'm finding it such an inspiring place. I have a lot of different boards over there, ranging from quilt inspiration to home decor, English Paper Piecing to making things for children. I fill my boards with images that I love, as well as images of things I've created. I'd love it if you would like to check out my boards, you can find me here. I spoke in my last post about how I think my style is vintage with a modern twist so here are some images that I think really sum that up. 

I love brightly coloured patchwork quilts against a neutral backdrop. I think it's the white walls that give this image a modern twist.

The room below looks so cosy. 

I love vintage china too! 

Do you have a Pinterest account? Let me know in the comments and I will be sure to check yours out too.
Happy pinning!

I've changed the name of my website from Rose Petal Patterns to Vintage Sewing Box and I just wanted to take a little moment to explain why. When I started Rose Petal Patterns, I set up a separate Instagram account and kept my personal one (vintage sewing box) going at the same time. The idea was that I would just show my own patterns, designs and tutorials on Rose Petal Patterns and save Vintage Sewing Box for other makes not designed by me. It soon became difficult for me to keep up with posting to two accounts regularly and something had to give. So I stopped posting to Rose Petal Patterns and decided to just show everything on my personal account. 
Recently there's been a bit of confusion about my two names, so I made the difficult decision to change my website. This also led me to rethink what I want to do with my website. I've decided I want to continue writing my blog as I really enjoy it. I also want to continue with tutorials because I love creating those. I  want to develop more video tutorials as well as written/photographic ones and I definitely want to develop more free patterns. 

It feels scary changing my name here, I've worked hard on my website and I could see that I was getting lots of regular visitors which is so lovely. Even though my name has changed, not much else will actually change! So I hope you will all still pop over here to see what is going on!

Vintage Sewing Box is a name that describes me really. I have a love of old, vintage, sewing treasures and I love how sewing connects me to the past. However, I am also really passionate about giving vintage style a modern twist to bring sewing into the 21st century and to get the younger generations into it. I think it's such a great hobby, I really want to inspire everybody to pick up a needle and thread! So moving forward, I think you will see more of me and my style over here, and I hope you enjoy what I make. 
Thank you for reading this, it really does mean a lot to me.
Happy sewing!

On Saturday 4th May I was lucky enough to be able to attend a workshop at Needle and Thread Workshops called An Introduction to Doll Making, taught by Katy Livings. I'm guessing that if you are reading this, you are familiar with Katy's work. She makes the most exquisite heirloom dolls and rabbits. Her attention to detail is perfection. I've followed Katy for many years and it really was a dream come true to be able to take part in the workshop and learn from her.

I've also followed Needle and Thread Workshops for a long time and I've longed to attend a class there. They run the most interesting array of workshops, all of which appeal to me. They are located in Lincoln which is three hours away from me, so I've never been able to go before. However my husband realised his childhood friend lives 15 minutes away from there so it was the perfect opportunity for him to take our son to visit friends whilst I did some sewing!

The location of Needle and Thread Workshops is stunning, a converted barn in the countryside, the perfect setting. When I arrived I was given a warm welcome and really taken care of with cups of coffee, slices of cake and a delicious, healthy lunch. If you ever have the opportunity to take a class there I highly recommend it. They have lovely sewing machines for you to use and if you need any help they are only too happy to support you.

The first thing we did was look at the examples of Katy's work. Her dolls and bunny's are so beautifully made. It takes her four days to make one and you can really see how much love she puts into each and every single thing she does. She talked about her career and how it has lead her into doll making and it was really interesting to learn more about her.

Katy then gave us patterns and we cut out what we needed. Then we could choose which fabrics we wanted to use and there was such an exciting selection, it was heaven! I chose to make a brown bunny out of cashmere wool and I'm so happy I did. It is so soft and luxurious and really makes my bunny feel special. I also chose to make the legs from gingham fabric and I picked denim for the skirt. For the body, I used vintage fabric that I had brought with me. It belonged to my Gran and I wanted to incorporate some of her things into my bunny as a way of remembering her. Katy showed me how to line the fabric I brought with calico as it was a fine fabric and this gave it much more structure. I also added a vintage trim to the skirt I made and this belonged to my Gran too.

Katy is such a brilliant teacher. She is very generous with sharing her knowledge and I feel like I've learnt so much from her. She shares tips and techniques for every step of making the bunnies and dolls, it really is a masterclass. I loved the step by step examples she had brought of each stage of the making process. I'm a visual learner so being able to refer back to these throughout the day really helped me to understand the process and now I feel equipped with the knowledge to make more bunnies!

I had so much fun taking part in this class. It's so lovely to be in a room of likeminded people and to learn from other sewists around you. I didn't quite finish my bunny on the day but that's ok! I was excited to get home and finish her off and I'm really happy with how she turned out. I think now she needs an apron, a cape, a bag, some shoes, a quilt...

Well April has flown by, where did it go? I can't believe it is the first of May today! But I'm really excited to see what May brings because I have some lovely things planned. 
So I managed to stick to my plans mostly and I actually made quite a few things. I made my vintage baby quilt and blogged about it, and I included a step by step tutorial for how to make it. I love doing tutorials and I hope to do more in the future. It was gifted to a lovely little person for her first birthday and I hope she enjoys playing with it for years to come.

I took part in a few 'Sew Alongs' on Instagram this month and I loved it! There are so many fun challenges to get involved with, I wish I could do them all. I chose to take part in the Sunny Day Supply log cabin sew along and I made a log cabin block using all kinds of fun prints from my stash. I turned it into a little pouch and I'm using it to store my rotary cutter and rulers.

I also took part in the Trixie sew along, hosted by Kate Webber designs and I made another log cabin block using lovely Trixie fabric by Heather Ross. I turned this one into a cushion cover and I think it looks really sweet. As well as the cushion cover, I also made another pouch using Trixie fabric, but I made it using Hexiform EPP shapes which give it a squishy feel and mean you don't need to include wadding! I love this little pouch and I'm currently using it to carry small EPP projects around with me.

My favourite make of this month was this little bunny bag. I made it for my son for Easter and I filled it with chocolate bunnies. The pattern is by Minki Kim and is a free tutorial. I embroidered it with a Peter Rabbit inspired design. I embroidered it freehand, but I've had a request to turn it into a pattern. I'm hoping to get round to that soon and it will be available for free on my website.

I made a small amount of progress on my liberty quilt and didn't manage to write up a recipe for it as planned, but I will aim to do that this month too. I got up to date with my Sew and Quilt BOM and I'm so happy with how it is looking.

The final thing I started was a scrappy project involving tiny hexies. I don't know what this will become but I'm going to keep making hexie flowers out of my scraps and see where it takes me. 

I share what I'm making most days on Instagram, I'm @vintagesewingbox over there if you'd like to see.
I'm so excited about May, mainly because on Saturday 4th I am going to a workshop at Needle and Thread Workshops. It is a workshop with Katy Livings who I have admired for such a long time. I'm so excited about this! I will of course share lots of details about the day over on Instagram and here on the blog too. 
Other May plans include a log cabin quilt and I have a few gifts to make too. 
What are your plans for May?
Happy sewing!